Haha. In my defense I was deprived of sleep. I watched AZ all of last season and they never looked as bad as they did in the first half. The loss of Elm is going to be tough on them. Jozy is going to need to become creator and finisher this season like he did on both his goals.

Wow, check out the Martin Jol interview making its rounds in the UK press today. If what Jol says is true, Dempsey needs to fire his agent, and yesterday. Or is this just part of an elaborate way of FFC trying to save face in letting their star player go and also making it more palatable for fans?

thats a good point greg. is the acymony worth it though, maybe from all sides. a lot of the fulham fans are ready for deuce to be gone. deuce is not in the 18 for the norwich game tomorrow, whatever that means.

oh my gosh, the cottage corner is shutting down shop, that is devistating and must mean deuce is gone for sure now. im almost positive that before this season is over, we are going to see deuce and LD playing together in england, most likely inthe city of liverpool.

look at the fulham team and who is out and who is in. that is a team in serious transition, and more than likely on a downward tragectory. you can hear deuces pat answer now. "i was at fulham for five years, i had five coaches"

i should warn you guys, i got my epl fantasy on one screen, so i can review all the players. god everton is custom made for clint dempsey. who would you not mind recieving service from? leignton baines, how about little leon orsman. darron gibson, phil neville, peanut, its a long list of very good players and a croatian striker who is going to be massive this year.

Secondly, as much as I like Howard, Lando, Clint, and Moyes, I don't think a CL club it makes. If you mean Europa by Europe, then Fulham itself has enough in the tank (with Demps there) to get in the competition (they were in the final only what, like 3 yrs ago?).

I still have trouble believing that Clint is as hot on Liverpool as the press is making it. Nothing tells me that his addition would suddenly reverse them in an upwards trajectory back to the top 4/CL, and I'm sure he knows that. Plus, why the hell would he move to Liverpool to not play European ball for a side full of anti-American wankers? B*tch plz.

An Italian CL club (or Roma, which is clearly works-in-progress side) or an English CL club make sense. Otherwise, why not just stay in Fulham and cement his legend?

Methinks Jol is a fool to run his mouth like this. Does he really think he can endear himself to the fan base by denigrating a hard-working fan fav like Clint? Jol is starting his second frakking year helming the club. It's not like he's a Fergie or a Mourinho or even a Moyes for gods sakes.

First, the Deuce to Everton talk is, as the English love to say, complete rubbish. He's not going to move from one middling club to another - and from London to Liverpool to do so. Why would he uproot his family from a familiar (and some might think superior) city to play for a club that has known financial troubles? Fulham may not be known for throwing money around for big signings, but their only financial issues are the tight fists of their billionaire department store mogul. FFC can probably afford to pay Clint more contract money than Everton, and Everton won't have the funds any time soon to build a lasting Europe-caliber team. And as for the "play with LD and Timmy" nonsense, the record suggests Deuce couldn't care less about teaming up with Donovan. He speaks of him lukewarmly at best; they aren't friends off the field; and latey in Nat team duty, it's not like they are an electrifying combination that might override the lack of a personal connection off the pitch. So, to sum up, the verdict on "Dempsey to Everton," on loan or otherwise: FAIL. Continuing to promote this baseless and irrational rumor arguably is grounds to be called an idiot. Arguably.

Second, this whole situation - with Clint training alone now for the past two weeks, and now Jol blabbing publicly about there being no deal, Clint thinking there was a deal, it's embarrassing, etc. - to me smacks of a deal being very close somewhere (other than Everton; see #1, above). It just does not make sense that a player in his position would be ditched by the team in pre-season, then have their manager put him on the selling block at the end of the window, unless something specific was afoot (i.e., more specific than just Clint begging out). The icing for me is what Jol actually said - there's no way it's true. There's no way a player in Clint's position would "think" he was going to LFC and tell his team a deal was imminent unless it actually was. For God's sake, the man has an agent. As I said before, unless the agent is utterly, hopeless, fantastically incompetent, there's no way Jol's version of the facts is accurate. It is possible instead that Jol and FFC just want to get the deal done quickly now and dampen the blow for the fans by making Clint a pariah and his suitors look foolish unless they close the deal. It's a classless move, but it may just work.

Jol didn't handle himself well in the Berbatov transfer saga when he was at Spurs. He was stubborn and didn't want to let him go. When he and Levy finally relented, it was right at the deadline and they couldn't get a replacement. A few months later and Jol was out of a job.

Not saying that is what's going to happen here, but the bottom line is that when a player wants to go, he's gonna go. There's nothing that a manager can do about it.

The outcome has already been decided, Jol just needs to cut the best deal that he can next week and move on.

Gotta say, I was pretty shocked at all the negative vitriol against Clint from commenters on Ives's site (OK .. not THAT surprised, maybe). Unless I have undisputed facts that say otherwise, I'm in Deuce's corner on this one.

a lot of this stuff is really just speculation, yet i know it can get personal. jesus, liverpool and everton are huge, huge rivals.

everton only just sold cahill to red bulls, what, a month ago. if deuce is not about a direct replacement for cahill, then i dont know who is. the clincher is that everton did get good money for jack rodwell.

this proposed move to everton is postulation, based on all that is going on in the market right now and over this past summer. everton are good, i mean, come on, fulham did well in europe a couple years ago, but the only reason they even got into the event was through the fair play award.

fulham is a sinking ship and dembele is probably gone also. the defense is old and its going to really show this year. get out of london deuce.

id just like to say that phil has stepped up a couple notches in my book. he has a nice picture from the cottage on his profile. but he is a philly fan, so that bumps him down a peg or two. see you tomorrow night in RFK boy

socrates list kingpin as one of his favorite movies and you can not get more classic than that. even though he is about as fresh as a foghat concert

what an exciting week!!! usa wins in azteca, the epl is kicking off tomorrow. i just found out i have an extra soccer channel on directv. bien, is now channel 620.

sat. morning, on three channels at 10 am est, arsenal plays, so does liverpool, and fulham as well. can you say picture in picture, in picture. but the game of the day is probably newcastle v tottenham.

why dont you guys think deuce could go to everton? i mean, if liverpool really pulled a fast one and have hung dempsey out to dry, maybe due in part to the fault of his agent, but whatever, it almost makes everton seem more plausible.

if someone thinks post at ives site are hard on dempsey, go read friends of fulham, because they are no friends of dempsey. well, some are, but there is a lot of contempt for dempsey from the fulham fans. maybe just parting shots, as they know they are losing their star(s).

Who is NSC?

NSC is run by Greg Seltzer (MLSsoccer.com), who has reported on soccer across the globe since 2001, covering MLS, MLS Cup, U.S. Men, Women & Youth national teams, World Cup, Gold Cup, U-20 World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, UEFA Champions League and Europa League, UEFA Cup, CONCACAF and UEFA qualifiers, Premiership, Bundesliga, Eredivisie, various second-tier leagues, domestic cups and international friendlies.